Hike #857; Lambertville to Pennington

Hike #857; Lambertville to Pennington

6/17/15 6/17/15 Lambertville to Pennington with Larry Philips, Jen Berndt, Shane Blische, Alicia Micula, and James Quinn

Historic photos provided by Shane Blische from various collections

The group on Baldpate Mountain

Our next hike would be another night one, this time between Lambertville and Pennington. The purpose of this one was again to cover a tiny piece of the NJ perimeter I was missing. I noted that I needed to cover a short section along the Delaware in Titusville, just north of where we had walked a section in the Winter. The section was only a block west of the Delaware and Raritan Canal and former Bel Del Railroad bed, but I still wanted to do things right and make sure I was following the perimeter.

We met in the afternoon at Pennington Market to shuttle to our beginning point. Our starting spot would be the D&R Canal State Park lot behind the station in Lambertville. Newcomers on this hike were Alicia Micula, as well as young railroad prodigy Shane Blische, who had been friends with me on Facebook for some time prior to this from the railroad group forums. Shane knows more about the Belvidere and Delaware Railroad than anyone I know of, and can rattle off information in an amazing way. In some ways, he reminds me of myself when I was his age, right out of high school but already knew so much history of the old Warren Railroad and others.

Lambertville Station

Lambertville Station, one of several surviving stations on the old Bel-Del railroad. The structure is currently a restaurant. Photo shot 1962 by Norman Lipponcott.

The original station opened in 1851, then torn down and rebuilt in 1874, last used by the railroad in 1968 for the track and signal department.

Pictured here where we began our hike south of the Lambertville Station is a northbound freight train with lead GP30 diesel #2205. Photo by Martin Zak.

We met at the Lambertville Station, where Shane was walking along the former Bel Del tracks. He was wearing sandals, not good ones, ones without a heel at all, and planned to only join us for a little bit of time. He had only graduated high school days before, but is already considered an authority on local rail history.

The start of the hike was to follow some back streets to the Rock Hopper Trail, a trail that leads over the uplands toward other preserves. I'd run hikes on it before, but I figured it would be a good one for this night hike and would add some diversity besides just trying to do my missing segment in Titusville.

Since my last visit, signs had been installed even on the road route. In the 1700s, there was a colonial ferry crossing at Lambertville, then known as Coryell's Ferry. In 1778, General George Washington and the Continental Army crossed the Delaware and camped in the area, and followed the old road the Rock Hopper Trail partially follows, the old Road to Monmouth. We headed to Rock Road, which is the old road route, and after the last house it took us into woods. We also checked out an old house ruin for which only the chimney still remained.

Along Rock Hopper Trail, historic culvert

The route we took was often foot path, and often on the old roadway. It skirted some fields I didn't quite remember, as well as some stone walls that were very well built on the way to the nice stone arch they say dates back to colonial days. There were also a couple of new trails in the preserve which were not there the last time I visited. One went directly across from the power line crossing after entering the woods, and another came in from the left further up. I'm not sure where they go, but will merit further exploration in the future.

The trail continued in a circuitous route after leaving the old road, and we passed some big holes in the woods that looked like prospect pits, but I know of no valuable metals in this area. I can't think of what they might have been for.

The trail took us out to Rt 518, Brunswick Ave, where we crossed directly into the Dry Run Brook Trail area. This trail I believe is NJ Conservation Foundation land, but it's really just a continuation of the same path. We headed direct into the woods, and passed an interesting sign.

Interesting sign....

It warned that if visitors must smoke to carry out with them basically, and had a talk bubble coming from a camel. It was rather funny.

The trail took us along a former farm pond and across the top of the remaining dam, now purged out, and then passed a giant, beautiful tree. We continued along the trail, passing by a few cyclists, and met up with James where the trail came out to Woodens Lane.

Dry Run Creek Trail

We walked down Woodens Lane for a bit, and then tried to cut through Howell Living Historical Farm. Some lady who worked there came and hollered at us, and told us the farm was closed, we couldn't walk through. I told her we were just hiking through to Baldpate Mountain, and she again said we couldn't go through, but told us how to get there on the roads. So, I asked if we could stay along the grassy edge of the fields, and she said that was fine.

We came back out to Valley Road, then headed south to cross Moores Creek on a bridge. Almost across from here, we crossed Pleasant Valley Road on a path and reached power line right of way. We turned left to follow it gradually up hill into the Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain. We eventually came to one of the official trails where we turned right. This was the Pleasant Valley Trail.

Shane at the house ruins

Along the trail, we passed an historic former house site I had not noticed on the previous visit. At first, I thought it was a barn, but it was too narrow for that. It was certainly a homestead once.

We continued along the trail and reached a woods road, or farm road section where we turned right. It skirted a deer fence line, then cut to the right when we neared the top of the hill. This took us on out to the overlook and little picnic area. We could barely see the Washington's Crossing Bridge from above. It was starting to get dark, and I wanted to try to get out of this particular preserve before it got to be too much so.

View on Baldpate Mountain

We began to head down by way of the Summit Trail. I ran a hike through here soon after the trail opened, but I have not revisited that one since. It was the same as I remembered it for most the way, with the stone work done I believe by SCA crews. When we got to the bottom, we reached a new parking area. I remembered it being like a driveway with a gate, but now there was tons of room. We cut from here on down hill to the right and hit Fiddlers Creek Road. We followed that down hill to Rt 29, turned left, then crossed the canal and former rail bed on River Drive heading for Titusville.

Shane in the soup

Shane knew of a good spot for us to go and take a dip along the Delaware, a short distance away. I couldn't wait to get in the water for a swim, especially a place I hadn't know about yet. That makes doing the whole perimeter thing worth it.

River Drive crossing

This was taken where we returned to the former Bel-Del railroad north of Titusville, now a rail-trail. Here we see a southbound freight train led by RS-11 diesel #8647. Photo shot 1966 by Martin Zak.

Shane pointed out to us the old post site in the ground, associated with the former railroad crossing at River Drive, nearing Titusville.

Our swimming spot was pretty nice. We didn't go in for all too long because the temperature was starting to drop, but it was refreshing. We only barely had enough light to safely swim at this point, then we had to continue on our way. We remained on the old River Drive, which is now cut off to through traffic just ahead due to some kind of damage. Shane continued to point out where old culverts and such were on the parallel Bel Del line even though we couldn't really see them well.

When we reached the town of Titusville proper, we didn't have too far to go of the perimeter that I'd not followed yet. We walked by some houses on the south side of the town, then reached the intersection with Church Road, where we turned left, away from the edge of the Delaware and the town. It was now time to turn right onto the former Belvidere and Delaware Railroad heading south toward Washington's Crossing. I'd finished with the bit of the perimeter I was missing here.

Shane explained to us that this spot was the site of the Titusville Station.

Titusville Station

Titusville Station, at one time one of around thirty passenger stops along the former Bel-Del railroad. The station opened for business in 1851 and ceased operating in the early 1940s, replaced by a shelter that would only last to 1952. This photo was taken in the late 1920s as part of a West Jersey history project.

We began following the rail bed to the south. Shane gave us the years of construction, and the 1850s sections here were among the earliest completed for the Bel Del which would eventually stretch from Trenton to Manunka Chunk junction beyond Belvidere. The railroad was built on the original towpath of the Delaware and Raritan Feeder Canal in many places, including here.

We continued the easy walk along the rail bed and canal south to Washington's Crossing, nice and flat. When we got to that point, we'd cut up hill into Washington's Crossing State Park. Shane pointed out to us where the old Washington's Crossing Station used to be.

Washington's Crossing Station 1920s

Washington's Crossing Station, a duplicate of the Titusville Station, was established here in 1851, remolded in 1950 and closed in 1958 when passenger service was dwindling.

Washington's Crossing Station 1976

Shane managed to put together comparative photos of the former station site, above in the 1920s, then again in 1976 prior to the removal of the rails, and below a recent shot he had taken. It's absolutely amazing how much a site changes.

2015

When we walked past these places, he pointed out to us where they were by either showing us photos on his phone, or in the book he brought with him "Down Along The Old Bel Del", a fantastic read about the line that is now rare to come by. He carried it the entire way.

By this point, I was surprised but happy Shane continued on with us. He had been planning to cut out after only a short distance, but managed to stick with us all the way to Washington's Crossing. He now figured that he might as well just finish the hike, and I told him I'd bring him home.

We crossed the long foot bridge above Washington's Crossing site, then headed into the park. We found our way to the Continental Lake, which crosses the park west to east, and followed it on through. Some sections of it were surprisingly bad. When we got farther into the park, a drainage issue near an underpass had washed the old roadway out at about eight feet deep. Still, we managed to go on by it and continue around the outside of the park.

Near the center of the park, and on the east side, we reached Route 579. I watched the GPS close so we'd know where to turn out through the evergreen trees. Once we got to the turn on Pennington-Titusville Road, we turned right to follow it. We did a tough section of this area in the snow the previous Winter and I'd been wanting to go back to explore some more of the trails we'd found, but it would be too dark to really do any of that. I let the rest of the group all get ahead of me for a little bit, and when they were out of sight I ran up a driveway to the abandoned house we'd found the previous time because I wanted to see if I could get in. Unfortunately, it was locked up better than it had been before and I couldn't get to it. I hurried back and ran to catch up to the others. None of them knew where I had gone until I posted the photos and I got one looking through the window of the place.

It wasn't long before we reached the closed portion of the road. A new bridge was being put in over the Jacob's Creek, and it was already enough in place to walk across, though it was difficult with the exposed metal wire supports for the concrete.

Jacob's Creek crossing

We managed to get across, and I started getting pretty tired. We sat down at a street corner up ahead, at Scotch Road. I had intended to cut through the school fields but at this point the road was quicker, so we just kept to that, and we did enough little extra stuff that it'd be over fifteen miles anyway. Pretty soon we were at the Pennington Market and ready to head out. It was easy to get over to New Hope to drop Shane off, really only another five minutes out of the way, so that worked out fine.

Creepy ticks...

The hike had a lot to offer, with regard to several eras of history and closing in yet another Jersey Perimeter gap for me. It was great to revisit some old familiar places that have changed a lot, seen some things I missed on those visits, and learned so much from Shane who is able to share more info on the rail line there than just about anyone.

I also ended up with more ticks than just about ever between this hike and the several to follow. Constantly I find them embedded in me, and the next day I found one perched atop the toilet seat, as if it knew it's next victim would surely get there. They are creepy things.

Shane joined the group at about the right time, because several more pieces of Bel Del will be parts of upcoming hikes to fill in tiny gaps in the NJ Perimeter.